Flagler store clerk fired for fighting with robbery suspect

A Flagler Beach convenience store clerk was fired a few days after he tackled a man who refused to leave the store and threatened him with a plastic gun.

JULIE MURPHYSTAFF WRITER

PALM COAST — A Flagler Beach convenience store clerk was fired a few days after he tackled a man who refused to leave the store and threatened him with a plastic gun. Eddie Vaught, 27, was fired from the Flagler Beach 7-Eleven a few days after he tackled Christopher Munson, who refused to leave the store and pulled a plastic gun on the clerk during a confrontation in the store. Munson, 31, was "acting suspicious" at the store earlier on the night of June 25, Vaught told Flagler Beach police, and when he returned to the store at 4 a.m. he was asked to leave, according to a report. Vaught told Munson he would call police if he didn't leave, reported Officer Kevin Pineda, "however Christopher challenged Edward's authority." The clerk went behind the counter and began to call police but Munson grabbed the phone and the two men began to fight. "Edward said that he was able to grab Christopher and struck him several times," Pineda reported. "During this time, Christopher was able to back up and pulled what appeared to be a black gun from his pants, aimed it at (Vaught) and threatened to use it." The gun later was discovered to be made of plastic. Margaret Chabris, a spokeswoman for 7-Eleven, said in a written statement Wednesday that the decision to fire Vaught was based on corporate protocol. "All of our security and safety programs and processes are based on decades of research," she wrote. "(They) are designed to deter crime and injury to our employees and customers. And they have worked." During a follow-up phone interview Wednesday, Chabris said the Flagler Beach 7-Eleven is a company-operated store and that all employees there have undergone training about handling situations such as this. Vaught said Munson brought four or five gift cards to the counter along with food he planned to purchase but he said he would activate the cards himself on his home computer. Vaught told him he couldn't do that and Munson left with only the food. When Munson returned, Vaught said, he was belligerent. "Our 'operation alert' training is all about that," Chabris said. "They (employees) sign off that they have taken the training and understand it." She said employees sign a document stating that if they violate the training they will be disciplined "up to being fired." A 7-Eleven co-worker who called police, as the training calls for, was not reprimanded, Chabris said. It's the second time Vaught has been fired from a convenience store job after getting into a brawl with a customer. The Mainland High School graduate was involved in a similar incident in 2009 involving a customer at a Circle K near South Daytona. "A customer thought I hadn't given him the right change and knocked everything (including the change) off the counter," Vaught said Wednesday. Vaught said he also wrestled with that man who whacked him in the head with a squeegee when Vaught tried to prevent him from re-entering the store. Vaught said he was fired over that incident, too, but won in arbitration to be paid unemployment benefits. It took him two years to get his job at the 7-Eleven, and he began studying at Daytona State College and has more than a year under his belt toward an associate's degree for math education. Munson, who was charged with battery and aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, remains in the Flagler County Inmate Facility on $2,000 bail.